LyfeShot Blynk: Easy Time Lapse Videos, Anywhere

We’re always looking for new ways to enjoy photography and videography. But while most digital cameras are either expensive, or not much better than your average smartphone, there are some solutions out there that serve less traditional purposes, perfect for special cases and niches.

Smaller than a deck of cards, the LyfeShot Blynk is a cute-as-a-button time lapse camera, that can either be used as a wearable or set up in a fixed position to grab images over time. Unlike the recently-reviewed Brinno model, the Blynk isn’t meant for or built for outdoors use. But it’s thinner, even if it lacks the rotatable lens, and has a nice clip that allows it to easily attach to your pockets, clothing, a purse, or bag. There aren’t any accessories for it, but it’s a self-contained and easy-to-use unit that does one thing and does it well (and comes in three colors).

The Blynk also handles all of the stitching automatically- leaving you with an AVI file instead of a bunch of pictures in JPG form that you would need to mess with- though handily, you can actually export individual frames if you want thanks to their LyfeView software, for PCS or Mac OSX computers. Controls are simple, offering adjustments to white balance, sharpness, color saturation, and you can adjust the interval to have the camera take one shot per second, every other second, all the way up to one frame per day.

Battery life is decent and depends on the interval of course- about a day’s worth of images can be captured without needing a recharge, with one being grabbed every other second. And the four gigabytes of internal memory mean that you’ll have plenty of space for your time lapse composites. The camera is only 640×480 resolution, so don’t expect really high definition results. But in the video embedded above, you get an idea of the quality. Available now for $130, it feels just slightly too expensive for what is a pretty solid feature set and good build quality.

About the Author

Greg Greg dreamed up the idea for the Truly Network while living in Hawaii, which began with a single site called TrulyObscure. In 2010, when advertisers and readers were requesting coverage beyond the scope of that site, TrulyNet was launched, reaching a broader audience over a variety of niche sites.
Formerly the head technology correspondent for the Des Moines Register at age 16, he has since lived and worked in five states and two countries, helping a list of organizations and companies that includes the United States Census Bureau, TripAdvisor, Events Photo Group, Berlitz, and Computer Geeks. He also served as the Content Strategy Manager for HearPlanet, a multi-platform app that has reached over a million users and has been featured in the New York Times, Hemispheres Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Fox Business News, PC Magazine, and even Apple’s own iPhone ads.
Greg has written as a restaurant critic and feature journalist for a number of national and international publications, including City Weekend Magazine, Red Egg Magazine, the Newton Daily News, Capital Change Magazine, and an arm of China Daily, Beijing Weekend. In addition, he has served as a consulting editor for the Foreign Language Press of Beijing, as well as a writer and editor for the George Washington University Hatchet, the school newspaper of his alma mater.
Originally from Iowa, Greg is currently living in the West Village of Manhattan.